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South X Southwest 2011: Day Four
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- Parent Category: Blogs
- Category: Eric Lurio
- Published on Monday, 14 March 2011 03:28
- Written by Eric Lurio
There’s a lot going on at SxSW besides the movies, and official panel discussions. There are also lots and lots of corporate-sponsored venues where they give away free food. Now for the most part, these venues are not all that well publicized, since food and drink are expensive, and the lines can go on for miles (I’m not kidding).
I’d like to talk about two of them for a minute: The IFC Lounge on Seventh and Brazos, and the CNN Grill on Third and San Jaquito. Now the former was great last year. There was free beer and pretzels, easy access, and a couple of large bathrooms with short lines.
This year, it’s almost the same, but Facebook screwed it up when they decided to interview a bunch of celebrities, and in order to make it even cooler, decided to prevent most of the people who would ordinarily go there wait out on the street for hours.
The first afternoon was fine; I got in with little or no trouble, but then the next day, I got an invite from the Facebook people announcing that a movie star friend of mine was going to be interviewed. Now without naming names, she and I only get together about twice a year, when she’s doing something at a large event which I was going to be at, and since I had no idea she was going to be in Austin, I decided to go over and give her a howdy doo.
When I got there, there was a huge line. The thing wasn’t supposed to be open until 3 pm, and I showed them my press passes (never leave home without them), and mentioned the celeb in question -- who wasn’t there. She’s a celebrity, they said, she gets here when she gets here.
So they pushed me aside, and soon enough a limo with the celebrity and her boyfriend -- the basketball player -- showed up. She recognized me, and when they pushed her and him in, I went in as well… She went to the green room…. And I didn’t.
Here’s when things get weird. I had to go to the bathroom and I knew where the bathroom was, but they wouldn’t let me use it. It was not that anyone else was in it. In fact, PeeWee Herman was already in the “studio” and there was no one anywhere near it. But for some reason they thought that those of us who were actually inside the building were somehow going to do something insane there, like pee and I had to leave… I had a movie to go to anyway.
Now the next major lounge is a lot better. It’s also a lot harder to get into because its run by CNN’s entertainment division and is only for high mucky-mucks and people with press passes. I managed to get in and discovered that everything, food and liquor both, were totally free. The Canadians had a place at a local bistro where they were giving out free sliders and scrambled eggs, though not together. Also, Pepsi was giving out free samples and hot dogs.
Definitely worth the price of admission.
South X Southwest 2011: Day Three
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- Parent Category: Blogs
- Category: Eric Lurio
- Published on Friday, 11 March 2011 18:55
- Written by Eric Lurio
Day Three: I took the wrong bus, and wound up somewhere in the U. of Texas campus. I then started to wander around the convention center, where I began talking to people, mostly about the interactive section, which is where a bunch of website constructors get together and talk about the latest gadgets. They really didn’t have much on their minds besides, parties, money and how to make it, and a fellow who had the platinum badge (it gets you everywhere) told me how the music industry is almost dead and soon there’s going to be nothing left except MP3s and self-published specialty vinyl.
I went to the filmmakers lounge and ate the bagels and drank the coffee. They told me not to do it anymore, but let me have seconds nonetheless. Then there’s the SXExpress, where one can get special passes to get in ahead of everyone else (except those who were in front of the SxExpress line). I got the ones I wanted. I could get four, but since this is the first day of the actual festival, there’s only time for two.
The press lounge is rather small for this year, and may not be available to us on the film side when the interactive part is finished. That’s what happened last year and it really sucked. That’s traditional. Not good.
Having gotten the express tickets, I had to wait on line for Source Code anyway. It started a bit late, as these things always do. The film wasn’t something particularly original. There was a TV series called Seven Days back in the ‘90s, not to mention Quantum Leap, Groundhog Day and the movie Groundhog Day ripped off.
That doesn’t mean it wasn’t good, just that it wasn’t original. I enjoyed it, but had another movie I had to go to. Taken By Storm: The Art of Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis about the guy who did most of Pink Floyd’s album covers, which was actually pretty decent for that sort of thing. Then I had to head home.
South X Southwest 2011: Day One/Two
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- Parent Category: Blogs
- Category: Eric Lurio
- Published on Friday, 11 March 2011 18:51
- Written by Eric Lurio
Day One: I got in around 8 in the evening, and a woman was nice enough to share a piece of manicotti, as they didn’t have any extra, and I was just sitting there, drinking soda. That was very nice of her, but the management said I had to pay for it. I told them the situation, and they changed their minds.
Day Two: Got up, fell out of bed (top bunk — ouch!) did the usual morning stuff before heading out to downtown Austin to pick up my badge. It turned out that they didn’t open until 11 am, so I went to the Starbucks next to the state capitol building and watched the world go by for about an hour. Then went back to the convention center, where I stood on the first of many, many lines to get my stuff.
There doesn’t seem to be anything going on right now. Just people constructing stuff, and the actual programs don’t start until tomorrow afternoon. So I take a bus tour of the city, using my decades-old student ID to get a discount (they didn’t ask if it was valid or not, only if I had one). We went out into the Hill Country and then north of the University by the LBJ Presidential Library, which I’ve seen already.
I checked out a few venues, which were empty, and had fondue for dinner before going back the hostel. The good guys are losing the war in Libya and while one would expect something like that, it’s still a bit of a disappointment.
Why you cannot actually buy Ebooks
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- Parent Category: Blogs
- Category: Eric Lurio
- Published on Monday, 24 January 2011 20:51
- Written by Eric Lurio
That’s right, you are forbidden to buy e-books. You also cannot buy songs off the radio or apps for your mobile phone. You can go to Amazon or the App store and give them money, and they will send you something in return. But you do not OWN them… And if you don’t own something you’ve paid for, you haven’t bought it. In other words, Amazon®, Apple® etc. won’t let you BUY anything.
I first realized this a couple of weeks ago I was stranded in Las Vegas, and was about to take a mid morning nap, when I decided to call a friend. He as surprised to hear that I was there and asked me if I was going to go to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which was going to start in a couple of days. I told him that I expected to be able to fly out late the following afternoon, well before it started.
